Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom (2018)

Alright, welp, guess I've learned my lesson then. These games go nowhere. Cursed Kingdom followed an extremely linear path for the first two hours or so, and then fell into the same exact problem Dragon's Trap did, which is once I got the snake form, the game completely abandons you and leaves you to get no more progression because no matter what you do, you cannot find anywhere else to go or anything else to do, so instead you meander in circles for hours on end.

So much for that then. These developers just think pretty graphics are enough I guess.

This is my first entry into the wonder boy / monster boy universe, and I was pleasantly surprised. I really didn’t love the art style, music, and the first couple levels/areas. I had to push through, and it rewarded me with some really great exploration, level design, and environmental puzzles that made the experience worth it.

It is definitely a B-tier Metroidvania for me, but it has a lot of fun gameplay to offer if you can overlook the music, art style, and totally boring story.

Picked this up on sale from the eShop not too long ago and played a bit before bed last night. I think most here probably know by now that I'm not super into platformers, but if it's done right (for me) and I'm in the mood for one, I can do it.

I really like this! I feel like it's kinda easy to get hit when you don't feel like you should be getting hit, but other than that... I like controls, the different gear (like the heavy boots) and how they affect your exploration, the art, and the concept.

I've done two areas so far, so I've played as human-Jin and pig-Jin.

Very close to the end. Enjoying it a lot...much more than the previous game I completed (Ori and the Blind Forest). A couple of things have irked me, though:

• Hiding switches behind foreground scenery. Why? What's the point? Sure, having me search all around for hidden switches and platforms pads that gameplay time, but it's not fun. So why do it?

• This game is long. I'm at about 20 hours entering what I think is the last area. I love me some Metroidvanias, but I feel like 15 hours might be my limit for this genre (think Metroid: Samus Returns). 10 hours or less is even better (such as older Metroid titles, GBA Castlevanias). I may be in the minority here, though. This is why I never beat Hollow Knight, even though I think that may be slightly better than this game.

I enjoyed the remaster of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap and eventually got around to playing Monster Boy. This feels like a true modern sequel to that game. The amount of hours needed to beat this game is fairly long for a platformer (20+ hours in my playthrough) and surprisingly there was never really any boredom. It always tossed new challenges at you right up until the end of the game. it never stagnated.

There are some stumbling blocks here and there but nothing major although there is one point where you literally have to go to the settings and change something to progress through the game which I thought was dumb and broke the immersion. Also it was easy to accidentally drop off a ladder while climbing up if you accidentally leaned on the left or right arrows of the dpad. The beginning can be a bit hard, especially the first boss because you have so little health. Afterwards the difficulty curve becomes more reasonable but then jumps up sharply with your hero taking tons more damage than before when you get to the haunted mansion.

Generally though the rise in difficulty was mostly reasonable. A big part of that is due to the level designs that are well constructed and hidden secrets that are really creatively hidden. The different animal powers offer different capabilities and things really begin to open up when you get the frog form. This is also the first form that can wear and use equipment, some of which also add interesting platforming mechanics (like the ice sword, ice boots and fire boots). So much of it was so well thought out. There are some really good challenges that required not just dexterity but creative thinking and use of all your abilities and knowledge of enemy behaviors.

The bosses require a good combination of pattern recognition and figuring out what you needed to do first in order to damage them like a puzzle. There are multiple stages of a boss that force you to do something different from the previous stage to hurt the boss. However, there is at least one part of the final boss that I would never have guessed how to overcome without looking at a walkthrough.

The graphics and music are pretty good. I admit the art style doesn't really appeal to me but it suits the game. The music is what impressed me more and is quite catchy.

Overall this is a very worthwhile interconnected world 2D platformer. Not necessarily my favorite but definitely above average, especially for its challenge, which actually might make this a bit too difficult for newbies. I hope there is a sequel to this game.

I finally got around to finishing this game after a few months away.

There were moments when I was frustrated with a puzzle or unsure of what to do next. I needed to check a guide a half a dozen times or so, but there is so little time for gaming these days that I would rather not waste it banging my head against the wall. Luckily, those occasions were few and far between. Timed segments could also get annoying.

I almost gave this game 4 stars due to these issues, but it was just too much of a beautiful game. I had such a big smile on my face throughout. The graphics were bright and colorful, the animations reminded me of late 80s anime (in a good way), and the soundtrack was AMAZING.

The gameplay was tight and scratched my Metroidvania itch. There are a lot of extras to collect for the completionists out there. You can really tell the developers love the Wonder Boy series. I hope they create a follow up to this fantastic game.

Ugh this game. I’m back at it now that I’m done Mario Odyssey. It’s not a bad game and it has a lot of visual charm, but platforming in this game leaves a lot to be desired. The controls are too floaty while simultaneously feeling clunky. And platforms are ill defined. They are often shorter than they look. This means that you easily clip through the edge of the platform when landing. Or that it’s super easy to slide off the platform because you step too far and clip through the edge again. You can’t fully trust your eyes when platforming which becomes quite tedious in the more complex areas of the game. It looks like a game made today but plays like it’s from twenty years ago. That’s probably fine for long time fans of the series, but I like something where the game isn’t actively working against you. Compare this to the pixel perfect platforming of something like Hollow Knight and it’s easy to see why this game can be fun but is no masterpiece.

And the music is grating. There are a couple areas with decent enough tunes, but I’m not going to rush off and listen to the soundtrack anytime soon. It’s servicable background music at best.